Puerh Bordeaux

Work tea #1

I found this very enjoyable. There were woody, earthy notes from the puerh as well as sweet spicy grape flavors. There was also a slightly deeper note that hinted at wine, but I think it fell a bit short. The tea was full bodied and had a nice creaminess to it. All in all really good. I’d happily drink it again. I wish I could’ve tried several steeps, but work is work. If I can I’ll pick up a box to keep at home. This is a good one.

Rishi might be better served by removing that blackberry twang from this blend. I feel like many of the reviewers, myself included, picked up this tea in hopes of experiencing an earthy pu-erh with a hint of red wine to bring out a figgy and mature flavor. What I got instead was a low but noticeable dose of Berry Zinger. Now, to be fair, the package told me right off there would be blackberry, but I figured that no one would pair pu-erh and grape skins only to tart it up too strongly with the blackberry. I was wrong. That’s my fault and not theirs, but I do think this tea might be better received if they let the pu-erh take the lead.

I recommend adding sweetener to this. Also, consider throwing away the first steep to avoid some of the sour.

Maybe I need to learn to take teabags more seriously. I think I tend to go in with a casual mindset and not really pay full attention to the nuances. I couldn’t have told you what the added ingredients for this tea were without reading them on this page. I thought maybe it was pomegranate pieces from the tart and almost berry-like fruit taste. At first, it tasted alright. The fruity flavor and what seemed like a bit of spice meshed well with the earthy Puer, but the infusion was thin and I was curious to see how it would hold up with a more bold flavor so I steeped it a bit longer.

I imagine the Puer alone would have done well that way, but this made the tea way too tart from the fruit added in, so I didn’t enjoy this tea much after that point, nor did I feel like diluting it, as I felt like the fruit kind of masked the Puer flavor too much either way.

This tea was just run-of-the mill for a (hear comes the full disclosure:) snobby gongfu-style Puer tea drinker like me. Might be good for those who like western style blended teas though. It had a cozy appeal, just not the kind of flavor dynamic I enjoy.

Thank you, Rishi, for the sample, obtained at Midwest Tea Fest.

Thank you for the sample cookies!

This is interesting…tart and a little sweet from the wine and earthy from the puerh. I preferred the 2nd cup I made which I lightly sweetened, which means this is not going on my shopping list even though I enjoyed it! (don’t like to sweeten my teas regularly)

Sipdown!

I got this in the Overboard TTB. I’m really going to miss it. It’s not something I craved often, but it was a nice treat when I had it. Very smooth and rich tasting. I may need to put in an order with Rishi eventually just to get more of this.

In other news, I put in an order with Herbal Infusions two weeks ago and haven’t gotten the package yet. I know it needs to cross the border, but that still seems like a long wait. I looked at some of the recent reviews for the company and it sounds like other people have ended up waiting quite a while for their shipments. I really hope it gets here soon so I can add a few things to the TTB I’ll be sending out in February.

It appears I underleafed this. It was missing the figgyness I had hoped for, but I do think it will come out more when I read the directions before eyeballing an amount that wasn’t even correct. The “earthiness” here was really comforting. It reminded me of hiking through the woods. The bit of fruit/fig flavor made it seem like an abnormally cool summer day in said woods. I liked it, but I am definitely looking forward to steeping the correct amount. I’ll withhold my rating until then.

This tea is a really good pu’er blend. Lots of wine flavor with grape, cedar, blackberry and fig notes. Bit of tart and dryness. The pu’er isn’t heavy, fermenty or weird – but quite woody and creamy. This blend is pretty good iced too!

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/pu-erh-bordeaux-rishi-tea-tea-review/

I’ve had this tea in my cabinet for about 8 or 9 months now. On my first review of it I gave it a pretty low rating. Then I tried to swap it. Nobody wanted it. So it sat in my cabinet. So I’ve been thinking of just throwing it out but thought I’d give it another try. I’ve been using multiple pre-steeps on my pu-erh teas that has been working out quite nicely. Usually 10, 10, 15, 20 & 25 sec before I even drink a cup. With this I did 10,10 & 15 and threw it away. I figured too many steeps beforehand would wash away the bordeax flavour. So I brewed the 4th steep at 20s. It is actually quite good. The grape/red wine taste is very subtle , a light earthiness, sweet fig notes. Okay, back in the cupboard it goes. Lesson learned. You don’t like a tea- Try ALL different brewing methods before throwing away.

I can’t believe I didn’t even taste the red wine flavour in my other review! This cup is delicious!

This is definitely one of my favorites. Rishi has outdone themselves with this new line of tea. http://onthebean.com/shop/tea-bags/pu-erh/rishi-tea-pu-erh-bordeaux-tea-bag-organic-fair-trade-tea-blend-15-ct.html